Lives That Changed the World

Discover the untold stories of the architects of our future and the guardians of our past. From ancient scholars to modern tech visionaries, these are the lives that shaped history.

Moungi Bawendi holding a vial of glowing colorful liquid representing Quantum Dots
Biographies

Moungi Bawendi: The Man Who Colored Your TV Screen

Next time you sit down to watch a movie on a modern 4K TV, take a moment to look at the colors. Notice how the green of the jungle looks impossibly deep, or how the red of a sports car seems to pop off the screen. That brilliance isn't magic. It is nanotechnology. And it exists because of a man who, decades ago, sat in a Harvard exam hall staring at a blank piece of paper, convinced he was a failure.

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Claire Hughes Johnson speaking at a technology conference about leadership and scaling
Biographies

Claire Hughes Johnson: The Architect Who Scaled Stripe

In Silicon Valley, we obsess over the Founders. We idolize the college dropouts in hoodies who code all night and disrupt industries. We talk about Musk, Zuckerberg, and the Collison brothers. But there is another type of hero in the tech world. They are the "Operators." They are the adults in the room who take a chaotic, messy startup and turn it into a functional global empire.

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Daniel Stenberg sitting at his computer, surrounded by code, with subtle icons of devices like cars and phones in the background
Biographies

Daniel Stenberg: The Man Who Powers the Internet for Free

If you have checked Instagram today, streamed a movie on Netflix, ordered an Uber, or even just started your car, you have used Daniel Stenberg's work. He is arguably one of the most influential people in the digital world, yet if he walked past you in a grocery store, you wouldn't blink.

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Mira Murati giving a presentation about artificial intelligence and future technology
Biographies

Mira Murati: The Woman Who Taught AI to Speak

On November 30, 2022, the world changed. It didn't happen with a bang, a massive press conference, or a flashy TV commercial. It happened quietly, with a simple, empty text box on a white screen. When OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public, they expected a quiet "research preview" for a few thousand nerds. Instead, they got the fastest-growing consumer application in human history.

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Illustration of Al-Biruni standing on a mountain in India measuring the horizon with an astrolabe
Biographies

Al-Biruni: The Man Who Measured the Earth with a Stick

Imagine trying to measure the exact size of the entire planet. Now, imagine doing it without a single satellite, without a computer, and without even leaving your country. You have no GPS, no calculator, and no lasers. All you have is a wooden stick, a brass instrument, and a mountain.

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A historical illustration of Ibn al-Haytham working in a dark room with a beam of light
Biographies

Ibn al-Haytham: The Man Who Caught Light

Take a moment to look at your phone camera. Or simply glance out the window. That simple act—seeing an image of the world—is something humanity fundamentally misunderstood for thousands of years. It took a man sitting alone in a dark prison cell, afraid for his life, to finally figure it out.

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